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Natural  Selection  and  the  Race 
Problem. 


BY 


Benj.  K.  Hays,  M.  D., 
Oxford,  N.  C. 


Reprint  from 

The  Charlotte  Medical  Journal. 

May,  1905. 


CHARLOTTE,  N.  C. 


* 


Natural  Selection  and  the    Race 
Problem. 

By  Benj.  K.  Hays,  M.  D.,  Oxford,  N.  C. 

So  much  has  been  written  on  the  subject 
of  late,  so  near  does  it  come  to  the  heart  and 
home  of  each  one  of  us,  and  so  long  have 
the  older  men  present  been  struggling  with 
the  problem,  that  I  doubt  not  that  in  its 
practical  bearing  many  of  you  are  more 
familiar  with  it  than  I  am. 

In  a  scientific  discussion  prejudice  can 
have  no  place. 

It  is  true  that  racial  prejudice  is  a  factor — 
perhaps  the  chief  factor — to  be  considered 
in  the  settlement  of  the  problem,  but  if  we 
desire  to  reach  the  truth  we  must  forget  for 
a  time  that  we  are  men  of  one  color,  dis- 
cussing men  of  another  color. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  approach  this  ques- 
tion from  the  standpoint  of  a  moralist,  nor 
to  advise  men  as  to  their  duty. 

For  the  cruel  treatment,  which  in  rare  in- 
stances, negroes  have  received  from  the 
hands  of  white  men,  I  have  no  defence,  nor 
am  I  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  cruel  treat- 
ment of  a  brother,  though  his  skin  be  black, 
brutalizes  the  man  who  inflicts  it. 

The  black  man  has  formed  no  trust  on  the 
crime  and  ignorance  of  the  South. 

I  shall  not  undertake  to  say  what  rela- 
tionship between  the  two  races  ought  or 
ought  not  to  exist.  With  the  doctrinaire 
-ovho  points  the  way  to  ideal  conditions  I 
<Jhave  little  patience.  The  moral  attitude  of 
<^>the  two  races,  relative  to  each  other,  will 
^never  be  superior  to  that  of  the  races  indi- 
C^vidually. 


When  New  York  society  and  Pennsyl- 
vania politics  have  become  pure  ;  when  the 
chicken  roost  and  the  sheep  pasture  have 
ceased  to  be  a  temptation  ;  and  when  the 
moral  teachings  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  have 
become  the  rule  and  guide  of  men's  daily 
lives,  then,  and  not  till  then  may  we  hope 
for  absolute  justice  between  white  men  and 
black  men. 

Personally,  I  am  an  advocate  of  indus- 
trial education,  and  endorse  every  word 
that  I  have  heard  fall  from  the  lips  of  the 
Educational  Governor  of  North  Carolina, 
and  every  line  that  I  have  seen  from  the  pen 
of  the  great  Colored  Apostle  of  industrial 
education. 

The  object  of  this  paper  is  to  examine  the 
conditions  as  they  are  ;  to  account  for  them 
by  natural  causes;  to  inquire  if  those  causes 
are  still  operative  ;  and  if  possible  to  note 
whither  they  are  tending. 

At  the  time  the  negro  received  his  free- 
dom in  the  South  there  was  a  book  in  cir- 
culation in  Europe  which  was  being  read 
and  pondered  upon  by  thinking  men.  It 
was  destined  to  become  the  most  notable 
production  of  the  nineteenth  century  ;  it  re- 
volutionized human  thought,  and  in  the 
light  of  its  teachings  all  institutions,  both 
human  and  divine,  had  to  be  studied  anew. 

1  refer,  of  course,  to  Darwin's  Origin  of- 
Species. 

The  universal  law  of  evolution  had  been 
announced  by  Herbert  Spencer  in  the  early 
fifties,  but  it  was  not  until  1859,  with  the 
appearance  of  Darwin's  book,  that  the 
theory  of  Natural  Selection  was  born. 


3 

The  greatest  intellectual  contest  that  the 
world  has  known  was  called  forth  by  this 
book.  The  minor  details  of  some  of  its 
teachings  have  been  modified,  but  scientific 
men  of  to-day  who  differ  with  Darwin, 
differ  chiefly  in  this,  that  they  carry  the 
theory  a  step  further  than  its  author.  To 
use  the  language  of  LeConte,  they  out- 
Darwin  Darwin. 

And  yet,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to 
learn,  no  man  has  made  a  clear  application 
of  the  law  of  evolution  to  the  two  races  in 
this  country.  Heredity  plays  an  important 
part  in  the  law  of  evolution,  and  this  phase 
of  the  subject  has  been  dealt  with  by  the 
masterly  hand  of  Dr.  Paul  Barringer,  but 
the  "Struggle  for  Existence"  between  the 
two  races  and  "The  Survival  of  the  Fittest" 
are  themes  that  have  been  strangely  neg- 
lected. 

Before  undertaking  to  make  this  applica- 
tion, let  us  clearly  understand  what  is  meant 
by  evolution,  and  just  what  part,  in  this 
great  law,  "Natural  Selection"  is  supposed 
to  play.  For  just  as  sure  as  the  planets  are 
held  in  their  orbits  by  the  law  of  gravita- 
tion, just  so  sure  will  the  future  inhabitants 
of  this  soil  be  but  the  products  of  evolution  ; 
and  this  with  entire  disregard  to  any  man's 
opinion  of  what  they  should  be,  or  with  any 
set  of  men's  determination  as  to  what  they 
shall  be. 

Evolution  has  been  happily  defined  by 
John  Fiske  as  "God's  way  of  doingthings." 
"It  is  simply  history,  a  history  of  steps,  a 
general  name  for  the  history  of  the  steps  by 
which  the  world  has  come  to  what   it  is." 


(Drummond).  "It  is  continuous  progres- 
sive change,  according  to  certain  laws,  and 
by  means  of  resinent  forces."      (LeConte). 

It  does  not  undertake  to  account  for  the 
origin  of  life  upon  the  globe,  but,  given  the 
creation  of  a  living  being,  with  powers  of 
reproduction,  and  we  will  find  a  continuous 
progressive  change  in  accordance  with  de- 
finite laws. 

This  is  Evolution. 

No  species  can  go  on  reproducing  itself 
without  finding  some  natural  check  upon  its 
growth  ;  otherwise  that  species  would  soon 
over-run  the  entire  globe.  In  the  case  of 
animal  life  it  must  contend  with  heat,  cold, 
drought,  moisture,  disease,  famine  and  the 
enemies  to  which  it  falls  a  prey. 

The  animal  which  is  best  able  to  meet  the 
conditions — best  adapted  to  its  environment, 
which,  because  of  strength,  color  or  habits, 
can  procure  its  food  or  escape  its  enemies  is 
the  one  which  lives.  This  is  "The  Survival 
of  the  Fittest." 

The  survivor  transmits  its  superior  traits 
to  its  offspring,  and  the  slight  variability, 
added  to  by  countless  generations,  finally 
evolves  a  new  species.  This  is  "Natural 
Selection." 

If  we  accept  the  theory,  (and  I  without 
reservation  do  accept  it)  that  all  animal  life 
descended  from  a  few  primitive  forms,  we 
are  able  to  trace,  step  by  step,  every  stage 
in  the  development  of  the  higher  forms  of 
life.  For,  as  a  tree  in  its  upward  growth, 
throws  off  limbs  that  never  rise  above  their 
place  of  origin,  so,  animal  life  at  every 
stage  has  thrown  off  developed  species,  and 


5 

these  species  have  moved  down  the  ages 
practically  unchanged,  while  the  highest 
branches  have  continued  steadily  onward 
in  their  growth.  It  is  not  believed,  nor  has 
it  ever  been  taught,  that  any  higher  form 
was  evolved  from  the  offshoot  of  a  lower 
form. 

Evolutionists  no  more  believe  that  man 
descended  from  a  monkey  than  that  the 
highest  twig  of  an  oak  grows  from  the  tip 
of  its  lowest  limb. 

Notwithstanding  the  continued  progress 
in  the  higher  species,  every  individual  must 
reproduce,  in  his  own  history,  the  entire 
history  of  the  race.  The  ontogeny  is  a  re- 
petition of  the  phylogeny. 

Every  man  is  once  a  single  cell,  and  so 
much,  in  this  stage  of  his  development  does 
he  resemble  certain  protozoa  that  only  the 
most  expert  microscopist  can  distinguish 
between  the  two.  Later  in  embryonic  de- 
velopment, man  passes  through  the  gastrula 
stage,  and  here,  in  shape  and  structure,  he 
resembles  the  chalk  sponge. 

And  so,  through  the  various  stages  of 
embryonic  life,  we  find  man  resembling  var- 
ious animals.  At  a  certain  stage  it  is  im- 
possible to  distinguish  the  human  embryo 
from  that  of  a  chick ;  later  when  it  appears 
distinctively  mammal  it  is  still  indistin- 
guishable from  a  pig.  No  one  can  watch 
the  antics  of  a  chimpanzee  without  being 
impressed  with  its  similarity  in  action  and 
mentality  to  a  four  or  five  year  old  boy.  At 
birth,  and  for  some  years  after,  Shakespear 
had  less  intelligence  than  a  monkey,  while 


St.  Paul  knew  less  difference  between  right 
and  wrong  than  a  pointer  dog. 

If  dogs  and  monkeys  were  trained 
through  countless  generations  there  is  no 
telling  to  what  extent  their  intelligence 
might  be  developed,  but  it  is  certain  that  a 
dog  would  never  become  a  monkey,  nor  a 
monkey  a  man.  Moreover,  if  left  to  them- 
selves, it  is  doubtful  if  either  dogs  or  mon- 
keys would  ever  attain  to  a  higher  stage 
than  that  which  they  now  occupy. 

I  have  given  this  hurried  and  imperfect 
sketch  of  development  because  I  believe 
that  the  same  law  is  operative  when  applied 
to  the  various  races  of  men. 

There  is  a  certain  point  at  which  races 
and  nations  have  seemed  grown.  They  pass 
into  a  lethargy  or  decadent  period,  and  from 
this  they  never  advance,  while  the  trunk  of 
development  passes  on"  in  certain  vigorous 
individuals,  who  found  a  new  nation  or  be- 
come the  progenitors  of  a  new  race  of  men. 

The  river-drift  man  once  inhabited  Eu- 
rope, chipped  his  stones  and  passed  away. 
The  Iberian  came,  and  his  weapon  was  of 
polished  stone,  but  when  the  Aryan  ap- 
peared the  Iberian  melted  before  him. 

The  Aryans  were  the  progenitors  of  the 
Anglo-Saxons,  and  wherever  this  race  has 
gained  a  foothold  the  land  is  in  its  posses- 
sion to-day. 

In  his  early  struggle  for  existence  man 
contended  with  the  heat  of  a  tropical  sum- 
mer, and  with  the  cold  of  an  arctic  winter, 
with  famine  and  pestilence,  with  the  wild 
beasts  of  the  field,  with  the  many  diseases 
to  which  he  was  subject,  with  the  difficulty 


of  supporting  his  young,  and,  most  of  all  to 
be  dreaded,  with  his  fellow-man. 

With  the  many  barriers  to  development 
which  nature  had  placed  in  the  way  the 
Anglo-Saxons  contended  successfully.  Of 
their  struggles  with  other  races  I  will  quote 
from  Major  Robert  Bingham  : 

"They  touched  the  Celt,  and  in  a  hun- 
dred years  there  were  no  Celts  except  in  the 
mountains  of  Wales  and  in  the  mountains 
of  Scotland.  The  Norman  touched  them, 
and  the  Norman  was  absorbed  and  his 
identity  disappeared.  They  came  in  con- 
tact with  the  Red  man  in  America  ;  and,  as 
the  Celt  vanished  away  at  the  touch  of  the 
barbarian  Angles  and  Saxons,  so  the  Red 
man  vanished  away  at  the  touch  of  their 
descendants,  the  civilized  Anglo-Ameri- 
cans. This  same  man  touched  the  French- 
man from  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrene  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the 
Frenchman's  power  in  that  vast  region  is 
with  last  year's  snow,  and  what  was  once 
French  America  is  now  the  heart  of  Anglo- 
American  civilization  and  power.  The 
yellow  man  touched  the  Anglo-American 
and  has  been  excluded  more  by  the  un  written 
law  of  race  hostility  and  race  antagonism 
than  by  any  formal  acts  of  Congress.  And 
the  Anglo-American  has  just  touched  the 
Spaniard  and  the  Spaniard  has  vanished 
from  this  hemisphere." 

History  is  one  continuous  record  of  the 
struggle  between  races,  nations  and  politi- 
cal parties ;  between  religions,  languages, 
and  schools  of  philosophy  ;  between  artisans 
and  tradesmen  ;  and  with  sorrow  do  I  record 


8 

the  fact  that  the  struggle  is  no  where  more 
keenly  felt  than  among  the  members  of  our 
own  profession. 

It  is  the  most  distressing  feature  of  our 
civilization,  that  while  Christianity  has  en- 
abled us  to  become  a  great  nation,  and  has 
made  of  men  good  citizens,  good  neighbors, 
kind  fathers  and  faithful  friends,  yet,  in  the 
treatment  of  competitors  men  seem  to  feel 
no  moral  restraint.  The  millionaire  who 
gives  largely  to  his  church,  endows  a  col- 
lege, builds  an  asylum,  and  does  not  see  a 
sparrow  fall  to  the  ground  without  com- 
passion, scruples  not  to  wreck  a  thousand 
homes  by  a  financial  transaction. 

Such  is  the  race  with  which  the  black 
man  on  American  soil  has  to  contend. 

And  the  black  man — what  of  him? 

As  he  was  known  to  the  ancient  Egypt- 
ians, to  the  Greek  and  to  the  Roman,  even 
so  is  he  found  in  hiss  African  home  to-day. 
At  the  dawn  of  history  he  was  fully  de- 
veloped, and  during  the  past  three  thousand 
years  he  has  not  made  one  step  of  progress. 
Independently,  he  has  shown  no  power  to 
advance.  The  superiority  of  the  American 
negro  to  his  African  brother,  who  is  a  sav- 
age and  a  cannibal,  is  due  to  slavery,  and 
could  have  been  acquired  in  no  other  way. 
Men  who  ascribe  debased  characteristics  of 
the  negro  to  slavery  show  a  short-sighted- 
ness that  is  pitiable.  The  present  attain- 
ment of  the  American  negro  has  been  solely 
the  result  of  his  close  personal  contact  with 
the  white  man. 

Nor  should  it  be  forgotten  that  most  of 
the  leaders  of  the  negro  race  are  men  with 


Anglo-Saxon  blood  in  their  veins  who  par- 
take more  of  their  Caucasian  than  of  their 
Ethiopian  lineage.  Some  of  these  are 
splendid  men,  who  are  making  heroic  efforts 
to  elevate  the  negro  race.  Others  of  mixed 
blood  are  vicious  and  turbulent.  These  are 
the  men  who  create  trouble. 

Left  to  itself,  a  negro  population  lapses 
into  barbarism.  The  Republic  of  Hayti  is 
an  example  of  this.  A  recent  writer  in  the 
World's  Work  has  thus  described  it:  "A 
government  without  a  practical  school  sys- 
tem, a  government  whose  expenditures  are 
seldom  made  for  improvements,  a  govern- 
ment without  adequate  asylums  or  hospi- 
tals, a  government  of  petty  thieving,  con- 
tinual insurrection,  promiscuous  poisoning, 
and  counterfeit  finance — this  is  the  Negro 
Republic  of  Hayti,  the  land  where  the 
black  rules." 

In  the  Popular  Science  Monthly,*  a  writer 
on  ethnology  says  :  "Only  in  single  excep- 
tional cases  have  leading  spirits  ever  risen 
from  out  these  lower  casts ;  and  where  the 
separatist  movement  has  been  confined  to 
these  colored  primitive  races,  it  has  led  not 
only  to  cutting  loose  from  the  mother 
country,  but  also  to  a  more  or  less  complete 
renunciation  of  European  civilization." 

In  this  country,  just  so  far  as  personal 
contact  with  the  whites  has  been  withdrawn, 
to  that  extent  has  the  negro  retrograded. 
It  is  a  serious  question  if  he  has  not  relapsed 
more  during  the  past  forty  years  by  losing 
the  intimate  association  of  the    white   man 

*  August,  1889,  "Ran  Questions  in  Philippine 
Islands." 


than  he  has  gained  by  the  $200,000,000  that 
have  been  spent  for  his  education. 

The  negro  has  been  domesticated,  but  the 
question  is,  will  he  ever  become  an  integral 
part  of  Anglo-American  civilization. 

Having  noted  the  contrast  between  the 
two  races,  let  us  ask,  why  do  men  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  blood,  who  have  never  yielded  a  foot 
of  soil  that  they  once  possessed ;  who  have 
never  deigned  to  mix  with  a  conquered 
people,  but  have  established  independent 
civilizations  in  the  home  of  the  Indian,  in 
India,  in  Australia  ;  who  have  robbed  the 
Boers  of  their  possessions;  who  have  defied 
arctic  snows  and  tropic  suns,  and  have 
penetrated  to  the  remotest  islands  of  the 
seas  in  search  of  new  lands  to  conquer — 
why  does  such  a  race  cherish  in  its  bosom 
one  of  the  humblest  races  of  earth  ?  To  my 
mind  the  answer  is  clear — there  has  been  no 
Struggle  for  Existence. 

The  black  man  has  never  been  a  competi- 
tor, but  has  always  been  subservient  to  the 
white  race.  And  just  so  long  as  he  remains 
subservient  his  position  is  secure,  and  just 
so  soon  as  he  becomes  a  competitor  his  fate 
is  sealed. 

It  is  not  necessary  that  he  should  work 
for  a  white  master,  or  remain  a  menial.  In 
a  country  whose  natural  resources  are  unde- 
veloped, as  is  the  case  with  the  South,  a 
man  may  serve  a  municipality  or  a  State. 
In  North  Carolina,  for  example,  there  is 
need  of  men  to  develop  her  farms  and  to 
work  in  her  factories  ;  there  is  need  of  day 
laborers,  carpenters  and  masons,  dress- 
makers and  laundry  women,  and  so  long  as 


II 

the  negro  renders  this  service  he  is  pro- 
tected by  the  white  man  as  a  gardener  pro- 
tects his  hot-house  plants. 

But  even  here  the  Struggle  for  Existence 
is  felt,  for  wherever  you  find  a  white  man 
whose  work  brings  him  into  competition 
with  a  negro,  there  you  find  a  man  who 
cherishes  a  bitter  hatred  of  the  entire  negro 
race  ;  and  were  it  not  for  the  protecting  arm 
of  the  non-competing  white  man  these 
rivals  of  the  negro  would  turn  upon  him  in 
a  single  night.  It  is  this  class  of  men,  who, 
when  their  passions  are  so  aroused  that  they 
can  be  no  longer  restrained,  compose  lynch- 
ing parties  and  create  race  riots. 

Only  once  in  our  history  did  the  negro 
become  the  competitor  of  the  white  race  as 
a  whole,  and  that  was  when  he  aspired  to 
political  honors.  The  political  position  of 
the  negro  to-day  is  but  a  forecast  of  what 
his  racial  position  will  be  when  he  under- 
takes to  realize  his  dream  of  commercial, 
intellectual  and  social  equality. 

The  recent  agitation  of  the  race  problem, 
making  all  due  allowance  for  the  political 
capital  created  out  of  race  prejudice,  has  in 
my  judgment  been  due  to  this,  that  the 
negro  has,  in  a  degree,  ceased  to  be  the  use- 
ful artisan  of  which  the  South  stands  solely 
in  need,  and  has  divided  into  two  classes — 
those  who  aspire  to  social  equality  with  the 
whites,  and  those  who  have  retrograded, 
and  because  of  crime  and  vagrancy,  have 
become  a  menace  to  civilization. 

Prof.  DuBois,  one  of  the  most  scholarly 
negroes  in  this  country,  in  a  contribution  to 


the  Atlantic  Monthly,*  tells  of  recent  attain- 
ments of  many  negro  graduates.  He  says 
that  the  attainment  of  the  few  is  the  hope 
of  the  many,  and  that  this  flame  of  hope 
can  by  no  possible  human  agency  be  extin- 
guished. 

And  yet,  if  every  American  negro  could, 
by  some  miraculous  power,  be  endowed 
with  Prof.  DuBois'  scholarship,  or  if  every 
tenth  negro  could  have  this  priceless  gift, 
the  two  races  could  no  longer  occupy  the 
same  soil.  Every  page  of  human  history 
points  to  the  fact  that  one  or  the  other 
would  have  to  go,  nor  can  we  doubt  that 
the  exodus  would  take  place  amid  scenes  of 
uproar  and  carnage. 

It  is  not  claimed  that  the  white  man 
would  have  a  greater  right  to  the  soil  than 
the  negro,  nor  that  there  would  be  any  pos- 
sible justification  for  the  course  that  he 
would  pursue.  I  have  seen  no  vindication 
of  the  course  pursued  with  the  Indian  ;  yet, 
I  am  convinced  that  if  the  negro  were  in  a 
position  to  make  a  contest  for  supremacy 
that  the  tragedy  enacted  with  the  Indian 
would  be  repeated. 

And  if  this  laudable  advancement  on  the 
part  of  the  best  of  the  negro  race  portends 
his  destruction,  how  much  greater  his 
danger  from  that  vicious  element  which 
renders  the  home  and  highway  unsafe  for 
unprotected  women. 

In  the  face  of  the  fact  that  swift  and  vio- 
lent death  follows  each  violation  of  a  white 
woman,  the  crime  of  rape  is  on  the  increase. 


*  September,  1902. 


r3 

Unknown  a  generation  ago,  its  alarming 
freo/aency  at  the  present  time  can  be  ac- 
couated  for  only  by  the  false  hopes  of  social 
equality  on  the  part  of  the  lowest  negroes. 
They  are  unwilling  to  pay  the  price  of  in- 
dustrial advancement,  incapable  of  mental 
or  moral  elevation ;  endowed  by  nature 
with  a  lust  closely  akin  to  that  of  the  brute 
creation  ;  without  love  of  home  or  country, 
they  can,  by  the  single  act  of  ravishing  a 
white  woman,  gratify  every  passion  of  their 
depraved  natures. 

This  class  of  negroes  is,  relatively  speak- 
ing, very  small,  yet  it  is  on  the  increase. 
Unless  checked  there  will  surely  come  a 
time  when  the  entire  negro  population  will 
be  made  to  suffer  for  the  crimes  of  the  few. 

If,  by  the  majority  of  votes  of  the  South- 
ern white  men  the  negro  might  be  trans- 
ported to,  say  the  Philippine  Islands,  un- 
doubtedly he  would  be  permitted  to  remain 
with  us.  Personally,  we  like  him,  and  the 
South  needs  his  labor. 

Charles  Sumner  was  approached  by  a 
negro  asking  alms.  He  replied  :  "1  am  in- 
terested in  you  as  a  race,  not  as  an  individ- 
ual." 

In  the  South  men  are  everywhere  inter- 
ested in  negroes  as  individuals,  while  they 
care  little  for  the  race.  There  are  few  of 
you  here  to-day  who  have  not  given  largely 
to  negroes,  nor  do  you  count  it  a  disagree- 
able task  to  ride  through  the  country  on  the 
seat  with  your  neo-ro  driver. 

The  disinclination  of  the  Northern  white 
man  to  come  in  personal  contact  with 
negroes    is    the    result  of  racial   prejudice, 


while  the  Southern  man  feels  for  his  domes- 
tic an  affection  born  of  mutual  dependence. 
But  the  old  affection  and  the  mutual  de- 
pendence are  on  the  wane,  and  no  matter 
how  much  we  may  regret  the  fact,  the 
races  are  drifting  apart. 

And  this  aspiration  for  social  equality  on 
the  part  of  the  better  class  of  negroes,  this 
increase  of  crime  on  the  part  of  the  worst, 
and  this  gradual  loss  of  kindly  relation  be- 
tween master  and  servant,  point  unmistak- 
ably to  a  relationship  of  the  races  in  the  fu- 
ture unlike  that  which  has  existed  in  the 
past. 

Students  of  ethnology  tell  us  that  the  pro- 
cess of  civilization  is  fixed  by  immutable 
law.  It  can  no  more  be  hurried  in  its 
course  than  a  glacier  or  the  current  of  a 
river.  It  must  pass  through  stages  as  de- 
finitely fixed  as  the  seven  ages  of  man. 

The  various  forms  of  society,  religions 
and  governmentsthat  have  existed  in  the 
world  have  not  been  the  outcome  of  chance, 
nor  have  they  been  the  special  creation  of 
any  set  of  men.  They  have  existed  because 
they  were  the  only  forms  that  could  exist  at 
certain  stages  of  development.  Like  stages 
of  development  have  been  characterized  by 
like  institutions.  Institutions  have  reacted 
upon  inhabitants,  and  through  long  periods 
of  time  have  developed  definite  forms  of 
civilization. 

The  life  of  a  civilization,  like  that  of  an 
oak,  depends  for  its  strength  upon  the  depth 
and  breadth  to  which  its  roots  are  struck. 

In  Africa  the  undisturbed  negro  is  in  a 
savage  state.     Contact  with   the   whites   in 


i5 

this  country  has  given  him  a  laudable  desire 
for  civilization.  But,  for  this  boon,  other 
races  have  paid  a  price  at  every  step  from 
which  the  negro  cannot  hope  to  escape. 

The  white  man  may  divide  the  product  of 
his  civilization,  but  the  civilization  it  self 
was  moulded  in  the  alembic  of  nature,  and 
cannot  be  transferred  by  human  hands. 

This  is  a  point  which  many  well-meaning 
friends  of  the  negro  have  been  unable  to 
grasp.  They  develop  upon  a  hot-house 
plant  a  foliage  that  invites  wind  and  storm, 
not  realizing  that  their  misdirected  energies 
tend  to  destroy  the  object  of  their  solicitude. 
A  grafted  pseudo-civilization  cannot  stand 
the  shocks  of  time. 

Nearly  a  thousand  years  have  passed  since 
Anglo-Saxons  wrested  Magna  Charta  from 
the  hands  of  their  king — years  of  slow  de- 
velopment in  sweat  and  blood.  Of  the 
twenty-six  barons  who  signed  that  paper, 
only  three  could  write  their  names.  There 
are  thousands  of  negroes  in  this  country 
to-day  who  have  had  the  advantages  of 
modern  education,  but  could  you  find 
among  them  twenty-six  men  who  would  be 
the  peers  of  those  grim  old  heroes  who  faced 
King  John? 

And  now  a  word  on  the  history  of  the 
South. 

The  institution  of  slavery  which  early 
found  a  foot-hold  was  a  bar  to  development. 
In  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century 
each  decade  found  the  northern  States  grow- 
ing in  wealth  and  influence,  while  the  slave- 
holding  States  were  practically  at  a  stand- 
still. 


Then  came  the  devastating  cloud  of  war 
that  cost  the  South  a  million  of  her  most 
hopeful  sons.  In  the  two  decades  that  fol- 
lowed she  faced  a  question  of  existence,  not 
of  advancement. 

At  this  time  the  great  undeveloped  West 
proved  a  veritable  Utopia  to  emigrants, 
while  Northern  cities  offered  inducements 
to  talented  young  men.  The  South  was  a 
slough  of  despond,  and  many  of  her  sons 
left  their  homes  to  try  other  fields. 

To-day  the  conditions  have  changed. 
There  are  no  more  unoccupied  lands  in  the 
West,  and  the  cities  of  the  North  no  longer 
offer  opportunities  for  easy  money-making. 

But  there  has  been  an  awakening  in  the 
South.  Her  recent  advancement  along  in- 
dustrial lines  has  been  such  as  to  excite  the 
admiration  and  wonder  of  the  nation. 
Northern  capital  has  turned  in  this  direct- 
ion, the  price  for  labor  has  advanced,  men 
of  talent  find  remunerative  employment, 
and  no  man  who  is  willing  to  work  need 
remain  idle.  This  means  that  the  resources 
of  the  South  will  be  developed ;  great 
centers  of  wealth  will  gradually  arise , 
every  form  of  industry  will  be  pursued  ;  and 
there  will  be  a  rapid  increase  in  population. 

But,  save  in  the  cotton  fields  of  the  far 
South,  the  negro  has  failed  to  meet  the  con- 
ditions. While  his  misdirected  energies 
have  been  spent  clamoring  for  social  and 
political  equality,  the  monopoly  which  for 
nearly  three  centuries  he  held  upon  Southern 
labor  has  slipped  from  his  hands.  The  time 
is  not  far  distant  when  he  will  enter  upon  a 


i7 

Struggle  for  Existence  with  men  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  blood. 

What  will  become  of  him? 

All  talk  of  transportation  is  idle.  For 
white  men  to  abandon  any  section  of  this 
country  and  leave  it  to  negroes  would  be  a 
reversion  of  the  trend  of  history.  A  gen- 
eral uprising  in  deeds  of  slaughter  would 
destroy  our  civilization,  not  that  the  whites 
would  have  aught  to  fear  from  the  defence- 
less negro,  but  because  men  cannot  commit 
murder  and  remain  civilized. 

In  the  face  of  these  opinions,  recognizing 
the  cry  of  the  negro  for  equal  rights  with 
the  white  man,  I  stand  convinced  that  the 
two  races  cannot  occupy  the  same  soil  on 
terms  of  equality. 

To  do  so  the  laws  of  nature  must  be 
changed,  and  race  prejudice  buried ;  the 
law  of  development  broken,  and  savages 
changed  into  civilized  men  at  a  bound;  the 
laws  of  Natural  Selection  rendered  inopera- 
tive, and  the  weak  contend  equally  with  the 
strong  in  the  Struggle  for  Existence. 

But  these  laws  will  not  be  changed,  and 
even  while  we  are  talking  they  are  silently 
solving  the  problem. 

The  more  advanced  a  civilization  be- 
comes, the  greater  is  the  opportunity  offered 
for  immorality.  If  that  civilization  is  to 
endure  there  must  be  a  commensurate  power 
of  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  individual 

Our  civilization  offers  the  negro  alcohol, 
gambling  hells  and  venereal  diseases,  but  it 
does  not  give  the  power  to  resist  tempta- 
tion. Our  civilization  offers  individual  lib- 
erty,   but    liberty    to    the    ignorant    means 


license  and  crime.  Our  civilization  offers 
industrial  advancement  but  a  refusal  to 
comply  with  the  conditions  means  poverty 
and  disease. 

Formerly  the  negro  was  protected  from 
every  varying  wind  by  a  beneficent  hand. 
The  slave-holding  class  of  whites  felt  a 
moral  responsibility  for  him.  This  class  is 
passing  away. 

The  North  regarded  him  as  a  down- 
trodden race,  and  took  a  peculiar  interest  in 
his  welfare.  This  interest  will  not  live 
through  another  generation.  But  when  these 
friends  of  the  negro  are  gone,  and  sectional 
strife  in  this  country  shall  have  been  for- 
gotten, racial  prejudice  will  live  then  as 
now. 

The  negro  must  workout  his  own  destiny 
as  other  races  have  done.  This  civilization, 
vicariously  attained,    is  not  yet    his  own. 

Large  numbers  of  negroes  are  moving 
North,  where  they  will  never  become  a 
factor.  Others  are  being  crowded  from 
fields  of  industry  by  labor  organizations, 
and  the  growing  unwillingness  on  the  part 
of  the  white  labor  to  work  with  the  black. 
Still  others  are  unwilling  to  work  and  are 
parasites  upon  the  towns  and  counties.  The 
criminal  class  is  on  the  increase  and  our 
prisons  are  crowded.  The  paupers  are  on 
the  increase,  and  our  alms  houses  are 
crowded.  Insanity  is  on  the  increase  and 
our  asylums  are  crowded.  Their  places  of 
abode  are  becoming  more  unsanitary,  and 
disease  is  quietly  yet  relentlessly  doing  its 
work. 

A  few  weeks  ago  a  negro   man  called  at 


J9 

my  office  with  his  daughter.  Her  hopeless 
condition  was  apparent  at  a  glance. 

"How  many  children  have  you  lost?"  I 
inquired. 

"Seven." 

"What  was  their  trouble?" 

"They  all  died  of  consumption,"  was  the 
reply. 

Many  such  instances  could  be  related  by 
every  Southern  physician,  yet  consumption 
was  unknown  among  the  negroes  in  the 
days  of  slavery. 

"Tuberculosis,"  said  Dr.  Hunter 
McGuire,  "will  exterminate  the  negro  race 
in  this  country." 

The  death-rate  of  the  negro  is  already 
twice  that  of  the  whites  as  a  whole,  while 
in  towns  and  cities  it  is  nearly  three  times 
as  great,  and  the  proportion  is  constantly  on 
the  increase. 

If  it  is  answered  in  the  face  of  these  con- 
ditions that  the  negro  population  has 
doubled  in  forty  years,  it  should  be  remem- 
bered that  he  has  lived  in  an  undeveloped 
country ;  that  he  received  help  from  white 
men,  both  North  and  South  ;  that  the  will- 
ing service  which  he  rendered  was  every- 
where in  demand ;  and  that  in  his  sphere  he 
was  without  competition. 

Even  then  his  increase  was  not  commen- 
surate with  the  whites,  and  was  less  than 
his  own  in  slavery. 

The  negro  of  the  future  will  labor  in  a 
developed  country,  not  only  unsupported, 
but  in  competion  with  white  men.  He 
must  adjust  himself  to  a  civilization  which 
he  cannot  comprehend,  and  face  racial  pre- 


20 

judice  where  formerly  he  found  sympathy 
and  aid. 

That  the  great  mass  of  negroes  is  quietly 
and  contentedly  at  work  is  true.  True  many 
of  them  have  acquired  property,  built 
churches,  school  houses,  and  other  civiliz- 
ing institutions.  For  this  class  I  believe  the 
immediate  future  is  bright  and  hopeful. 
But  for  that  class  who  hope  through  educa- 
tion to  live,  not  only  without  work,  but 
upon  terms  of  social  equality  with  the 
whites,  for  the  vicious,  tuburlent,  criminal 
and  pauper  class  there  can  be  but  one  future. 

The  anomalous  position  of  the  negro  is 
not  the  result  of  chance,  but  of  natural  law. 
He  was  sold  here  a  slave  as  other  slaves 
have  been  sold  to  other  countries.  In  the 
South  he  aided  the  white  man  in  his  Strug- 
gle for  Existence,  and  was  protected.  At 
the  North  he  was  of  no  aid,  and  his  services 
were  dispensed  with. 

His  emancipation  was  inevitable.  That 
the  method  employed  was  the  result  of  a 
blunder  need  not  now  be  discussed. 

When  freedom  came  it  was  inevitable 
that  the  strong,  intelligent,  law-abiding 
race  should  control  the  weak,  ignorant, 
lawless  race. 

History  records  no  instance  in  which 
these  two  races  have  become  amalgamated, 
nor  lived  upon  the  same  soil  upon  terms  of 
equality;  nor  does  it  record  an  instance  in 
which  the  African,  by  any  course  of  train- 
ing has  become  an  integral  part  of  an  ad- 
vanced civilization. 

The  weak  has   ever  been   dominated   by 


21 

the  strong,  and  where  the  strong  cannot 
control  it  will  destroy. 

As  long  as  a  weaker  race  will  render  ser- 
vice, it  will  be  protected  by  the  stronger. 

But  whenever  and  wherever  the  weaker 
becomes  a  competitor  of  the  stronger,  the 
Struggle  for  Existence  will  be  brief,  and 
the  relentless  hand  of  Natural  Selection  will 
place  the  weaker  in  the  list  of  those  that 
are  numbered  with  the  past. 


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